This invention relates to the replacement of thymus function and to the induction or restoration of immunological tolerance. The invention further relates to tissue and organ transplantation.
The thymus is the central organ for the development of mature, self-tolerant T cells that recognize peptide antigens in the context of self major histocompatibility (MHC) antigens. The requirement for self MHC molecules to present antigen is termed MHC restriction. Athymic individuals do not have an organ in which to generate normal numbers of MHC restricted T cells and are therefore immunoincompetent.